Search Is Suspended for 3 Missing Marines Off Australia

Officials have suspended the search for three missing United States Marines after an MV-22 Osprey, a hybrid aircraft, entered the water off the eastern coast of Australia around 4 p.m. local time on Saturday.

There were 26 personnel onboard the Osprey at the time of the accident, and 23 have been rescued, the III Marine Expeditionary Force said in a news release.

In a statement emailed to The New York Times, the expeditionary force said the Navy and Marine Corps had suspended search and rescue efforts for the three remaining Marines around 3 a.m. local time on Sunday.

“Operations have now shifted to recovery efforts,” the statement said. “The next-of-kin for the three missing Marines have been notified.

“As the sea state permits, recovery efforts will be conducted to further search, assess and survey the area. Recovery and salvage operations can take several months to complete.”

The cause of the crash is still being investigated.

The aircraft had launched from the U.S.S. Bonhomme Richard, an amphibious assault ship, “and was conducting regularly scheduled operations” when it entered the water, an initial news release said. “The ship’s small boats and aircraft immediately responded in the search and rescue efforts.”

President Trump was briefed on the crash by his new chief of staff, John F. Kelly, the former Homeland Security secretary and retired Marine general, the White House said.

Marise Payne, Australia’s defense minister, said in an emailed statement that the crash occurred off the coast of Shoalwater Bay, in the northeastern state of Queensland.

She added that she had briefed Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and had spoken with the United States defense secretary, Jim Mattis, “to offer Australia’s support in any way that can be of assistance.”

The Osprey is a tilt-rotor aircraft that can lift off without a runway, like a helicopter, and cruise like an airplane while in flight. First developed during the 1980s, it got off to a rocky start over safety concerns. One crash in Arizona in 2000 killed all 19 Marines on board.

“It had a very difficult development period,” said Richard L. Aboulafia, an aircraft consultant and analyst with Teal Group, an aerospace and defense consultancy.

But he added that no other aircraft has the Osprey’s unique capabilities and that it has proved its worth on battlefields, including in Iraq and Afghanistan. “As it matured, it went well into the safe zone,” Mr. Aboulafia said.

The Osprey that crashed on Saturday belonged to the Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 265 — nicknamed the Dragons — which is part of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit based in Okinawa, Japan.